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H.I.B.A.S

Chapter 2

Getting Back On Your Feet

He goes up his driveway, stepping through the ankle deep snow. It crackles under his heavy boots, echoing off the walls of his neighbors house. He stops for a moment at the top of the rise and looks around for a moment, things have changed considerably. He looks to left, his mailbox is bent and rusted, windows cracked and theres "D.A.F.A.Z." graffiti on the wall. He slowly walks up the driveway, noticing the driveway is empty except for his moms 1997 Dodge Ram. The wheels have rusted and broke, the windows are cracked and the body is rusted. The garage has caved in, snow piled up inside has pushed out the garage door, its hanging off its tracks. He stands there, unable to process what he's seeing. He walks up to the kitchen door and pushes it open, on the cabinet he finds a note

Matthew,

They evacuated us early, I was unable to come get you. Rebels moved in recently, and they killed off the police force and left, on the way out they blew up the fire house. The National Guard gave us 2 days, I filled up a U-Haul and went to Rome. I found your goddamned arsenal upstairs...I left everything in the middle of floor. I took nothing. I'm so sorry I had to leave you, I'm so sorry. I hope I can see you again soon. Call me at your cousins.

-Mom

He stares at the note on the dusty cabinet door, only thinking how things would be different had he not boarded the bus those many months ago. He catches himself yawning the more he thinks about it, the next thing on his mind now is sleep. He walks through the dusty kitchen, through to the living room. The living room has a single couch in it and barricades on the front door. He goes to the stairs and begins his ascent to top, being careful not to step on the large cracks in the wood. He reaches the top and takes a look to his left, his mothers bedroom is dark and empty, he turns to his right, his room as well. except for the faint glow of a night light. Being the insanely curious personality he is, he would love to investigate, but is overcome with the sudden urge to use the bathroom. He takes a seat a few seconds later and thinks.

What the hell should i do now? I have a good idea, but not sure. Should we organize? Is the Goober Squad still willing? Hmm...more importantly...wheres the fucking toilet paper?

Toilet paper he acquires soon enough and is entering his room to find all of his things sitting on the floor. Aside from that pile, the room is completely empty. With his things he finds a 30 pack of bottled water and 12 rolls of toilet paper.

Mom, I fucking love you!

He digs for his cold weather uniform and puts it on. He sorts out his gear and soon enough there is nothing left on the floor. His uniform is in the Universal, or Digital ACU pattern. His gear is olive drab. He wears tinted goggles with his helmet, an ACH, and an SPCS lightweight vest. With the balaclava he already has, he wraps a patterned red and gray shemagh around his face. He looks at the cracked mirror on his wall and says "Is this really what it's come to?"

He takes the cloth bandolier he keeps for his bolt action and slings it across his chest, he takes his Glock and secures it in its holster. He counts 3 magazines, all he needs. He checks the time and the date, January 4th 2011, 0958 hours, a Monday. "Well, fuck this shit sideways. Lets take a stroll to Seths." he says to himself, walking back out the door. He makes sure to fix his patches to the shoulders of his jacket. A black and white American flag patch on his right, and a Goober Squad patch on his left. The Goober patch is an olive drab shield patch sharply pointed on the bottom with a crimson 'G' in the middle.

He slings the rifle across his back and walks down the driveway, humming to himself. He walks up the center of Springfield Road up towards West Chester Pike. He encounters not one person, though he feels like he's being watched. He won't keep his rifle in his hands for fear of being shot by any National Guard that may be in the area.

He makes it past the gas station on the corner and makes his turn towards the auto wash, only about 80 feet to the corner of Evergreen avenue. He reaches the corner and makes the turn, only to hear and explosion up the street and screeching tires. He brings his rifle around to his shoulder and runs up towards the noise.

"Shit! Seth lives right fucking there!" he says to himself under strained breath. Its been months since he used his legs like this. He makes it to his destination to find a minivan burning uncontrollably in the middle of the street, about 15 feet or so from Seths driveway. Something across the street catches his eye, someone sticking their head out from behind the curtains of the second story window of one of the houses. Its the wife of the former Marine that lives across the street, she has a look on her face that says "you better run before they get you too".

He lowers his rifle, ignoring the burning car and broken asphalt he walks up Seths driveway. On the way back he notices the front of the house covered in sandbags and plywood, no doubt Seths work. As soon as he reaches the corner he is confronted by a figure in a plaid shirt, holding back a very vicious pitbull and holding a .357 revolver.

"Drop your fucking weapon! Drop it now!" the figure screams.

Over the barking, Matt manages to yell back, screaming "I'm a friendly!" He doesnt drop his weapon, but instead peels of the velcro Goober Squad patch and throws it at him.

"No way" the figure pauses, Matt realizes the figure is Seth, "Rodgers? You sumbitch! I thought you were dead! C'mon inside, my mom is in the basement, I'll let her know you're here."

Seth takes his dog to the crate while Matt takes his time, walking through the mudroom and into the kitchen. He slings his rifle across his back again and looks around. Not much has changed, even the hole he made in the ceiling by accident is still there. Seth returns holding two Monsters.

"Catch Rodgers" says Seth, throwing him a large can of Mega Monster.

"Danke schoen brother"

"Yeah. So what the fuck happened? Is there something wrong with your face?" Seth asks.

"Yeah, about that." He pulls of his helmet, then his balaclava and shemagh, revealing his new look.

Seth chokes on his Monster and almost drops the can.

"What the fucking, what? What the fucking deep fried llama berries happened to your face?" Seth says, wide eyed. Seth was the type of person who rarely raised his voice, showed any type of emotion and was rarely surprised. Matt just smiles and takes a sip of his Monster. He goes on to tell Seth what he knows, but isn't able to say much about his transformation as he doesn't know much about the process himself.

Seth crushes his empty can and throws it over Matt and into the sink. "So, you're a cat now? Like, permanently? How the hell you gonna explain that crazy shit?"

"Not a damn, fucking clue."

Seth walks around Matt and grabs his tail. He pulls him through the dining room, the living room and upstairs to what used to be his moms room. "So where in the hell you taking me?" asks Matt, who is a bit puzzled. Its dark and he can barely see.

"You, sir, are going to wait here and see how I have to dress to go to school in the morning," Seth replies as he walks into his room, shutting the door behind him. "So, basically," he continues, "them dumb sons-a-bitches think it's good idea for us, US, a bunch of fuckin' Marple kids, to 'make their way to school whenever possible to take classes', it's bullshit. And apparently, truancy laws apply. I got fined because I had 8 of those fuckin' Nazis outside my house, they dug into my front lawn and stayed there for 3 days." Matt hears what sounds like a pair of heavy boots hitting the floor. "I mean, I probably would've been okay if i just done goose-stepped my way out ya know, like that would help." he says jokingly over the loud rustling of clothes.

Seth steps out wearing a winter uniform like Matts, but its olive drab. He wears what appears to be a stolen S.W.A.T issue heavy vest with the patches ripped off over top of his uniform. With that he wears a long wool trench coat and an old US M-1 'Steel Pot' helmet. He also wears a rare smile on his face.

"Take a look at this shit!" Seth then reveals his left hand. On it is a very sharp looking Freddy Krueger glove, in his right hand is the same .357 he almost killed Matt with earlier. He excitedly continues. "How bad ass is this? Fuckin' Freddy bitches! This thing is razor sharp, finished it a week ago. Got the revolver from my grandpa with enough ammo to kill an entire company."

"You take that shit to school?" asks Matt, looking at him curiously.

"I always take the glove, I keep it in a pouch on my leg. But a week ago I had to start taking the revolver because I ran into trouble and had haul my lumpy ass back to my house 'cause I didn't have a weapon. So, unfortunately, yes. but I never take off my coat, not since I got it four months ago, so I wear it under my coat."

"That's some cool shit, so is school where we're going today?"

"Yes sir it is. 'Aight, lemme piss first, then we'll get going." Says Seth, stepping past him and into the bathroom. Matt walks down the stairs and out back the rear door in the mudroom. He takes two Mega Monsters out of the fridge on the way out and puts them in his pack for later. A few steps out the door, and Seth is right behind him. Without a word the go down his driveway ignoring the burning car in the street completely. The whole walk up there's no trouble, much to their surprise.

The entire time the talked about each others gear and setting up more defenses on Seths property, discussing whether or not the windows needed to be reinforced on the top floor or not. They were still talking when the walked up the path leading to the front doors of the school. Ignoring the shocked looked on the faces of the students seeing this strange cat-like creature, they casually walked into the school as if nothing was going on.

Matt walks up to the front desk and stands there politely with his hands behind his back, waiting to be addressed. One of the secretaries looks up and says

"Hello, how may I...oh my gosh!"

"My apologies Frau." he says as he removes his face coverings and helmet. "I'ma returning student, I've been hospitalized for many months."

"Oh well, ahem..." the secretary nervously looks down, then back up at the uniformed and armed young man in front of her. She leans and look at Seth, standing at ease just as Matt was before, staring straight ahead and waiting patiently. "...um, if you could fill these out." She hands him a few papers. He looks and they're for contact information.

"M'am, I have no immediate family or relatives in the state anymore, I'm on my own because of the current civil war. I will be staying with this gentleman here, Seth Coleman. If you would look up his contact information, that is where I will be. Anything else you need from me?"

"Well, erm, no not at this moment. Except, well, could you unload your weapon? You do appear to be a fighter, but please don't be too open about your side, and keep that weapon secure. I know I can't take it from you." says the secretary, still nervously looking up at Matt, then back down to her computer. Matt nods in reply and motions for Seth to follow him out the office door. He unloads his rifle and slings it across his back again.

"Shall we go to Isslemans for homeroom?"

"Yeah, you know it."